Interviews

Miyamoto In Control

Nintendo's living legend talks about the oncoming revolution in game control.

Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's living legend, has seen next-generation systems come and go. He saw the NES replace the Atari generation. When the Super NES replaced the NES, Miyamoto may still have been a relatively unknown personality, but the characters and games he created were among the most bankable properties in the entertainment world.

Four years later, as the PlayStation and Saturn ushered in the next generation, Miyamoto's name was no longer a secret. He appeared in mainstream magazines and became the gaming world's first genuine celebrity.

In his latest interview with GameSpy, Miyamoto took off his game designer hat and spoke about making controllers. Miyamoto helped design the controller for the N64 -- the first controller to feature an analog stick. He helped design the controller for the GameCube. Now he is currently working on the Revolution controller.

As games become more complex, Miyamoto worries that game controllers are following suit.

Miyamoto

"The idea that somebody might look at the Revolution controller and think, 'Oh, this is too much for me' is something that I would really regret. That is something I would love to avoid if I can," says Miyamoto.

"The controllers for this generation do not look fun to use. You don't look at any of the controllers and think, 'Wow, I want to play [with] this.' You look at these controllers and think, 'Oh my God, it looks so difficult.' That scares people away.

"Actually, at Nintendo, we're not even sure which is better. Is the + control pad the better way to, go or is the analog stick the better way to go? I haven't really been able to decide which is best."

Shigeru Miyamoto has long specialized in making family friendly games. The PlayStation 2 controller may scare off younger players, but it has not deterred older players. The Xbox controller ran into some criticism because of size, but its layout went largely unnoticed -- though the smaller white and black buttons were somewhat criticized.